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I recently bought an 18 inch upper with a rifle length gas system. I have around 200 rounds through it. It short strokes on wolf .223 ammo. I called the maker and they told me to shoot 250 rounds of 5.56 through it, clean it well, and see if it shoots the wolf then.

I was at the range this weekend and ran into a guy with a 16 inch, it had a long gas system, similar to disipator type rifles. It would short stroke wolf ammo too. It was a new rifle built locally. His builder told him he would lose accuracy and a bunch of other stuff if he opened the gas system more.

Is any of this true? I have a 16 inch stag upper that eats everything, but it does kick harder. I'd really like my rifle to function with any common ammo I put in it. I like wolf because it's cheap and I don't have to worry about finding all the brass.

wolf is usually not loaded as hot. Try it with some generic brass .223 and see if it still does it. I bet it is probably just the wolf, also possibly because steel cased ammo may not seal in the chamber as effectively as brass.

Carbine length gas system on the more reliable one, right? I have a middy gas system and I can't use the steel cased stuff, either. It just doesn't have the pressure in that cheapy Russian ammo to cycle when you move the gas port forward a couple inches.

Only on wolf, IMI 5.56 and PMC Xtac run fine, but you can tell they have more power.

It has a standard buffer and spring. I thought they were the lightest ones you could get. What would you reccomend?

It has a lifetime warranty on it, and all of the parts except the lower reciever are from the same company. They didn't have any issues with me sending it back to them for repair, they just wanted me to run some rounds through it first.

When you have a rifle length gas system on a rifle barrel (20"), you have 2 extra inches worth of dwell time to pressurize the gas system. It sounds like the Wolf ammo just isn't powerful enough to generate enough PSI before the bullet leaves the barrel.

Assuming you have a standard carbine buffer and action spring, there's not really anything you can do to lighten it up, except do what the manufacturer recommends and shoot some 5.56 through it. This might loosen up/break in the action spring enough to cycle the Wolf ammo (but then again it might not), similar to how a 1911 needs to be broken in.

Sounds like you're undergassed to me.
Especially with an 18" barrel with a rifle lenght gas system, gas port size is critical, as dwell time isn't very long.
What buffer are you running? Rifle or carbine?